Honduras Begins Decisive Vote Recount for President
Honduran President Xiomara Castro said she will recognize the winner of the elections, while several countries are calling for the protection of the electoral process.
HAVANA TIMES – Honduras’s National Electoral Council (CNE) has begun the special scrutiny of at least 2,792 tally sheets with inconsistencies, a process that could be decisive in defining the president-elect in the general elections of November 30, 2025, marked by a tight contest between two conservative candidates.
The recount began on Thursday, December 18, after having been postponed several times since December 13th due to the inability to set up the counting boards and the disputes among party representatives.
The presidential race in Honduras centers on Nasry “Tito” Asfura of the National Party, who leads with 40.54% of the vote—and has the backing of US President Donald Trump—and Salvador Nasralla of the Liberal Party, with 39.19%, who has challenged the results published by the CNE after 99.80% of the tally sheets were processed.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) attributes the delay in the special scrutiny, initially scheduled for Saturday, December 13, to administrative obstacles, the absence of representatives from some parties at the verification tables, and pending technological procedures.
The recount is being conducted in the presence of national and international observers, said the CNE’s presiding councilor, Ana Paola Hall, in a message on social media.
She noted that the process began with two ballot bags containing tally sheets from a polling station in the city of La Ceiba, on the country’s Caribbean coast, and that once the technical verification of the transmission of those tally sheets is completed, all members of the Electoral Verification and Reception Boards (JEVR) “will continue with the special scrutiny at all tables.”
Hall did not specify a completion date for the recount, although the CNE has until December 30 to announce the official results.
Nasralla, for his part, said today that the Liberal Party agreed to review the 2,792 pending ballot boxes to complete some “500,000 votes,” but insisted that the CNE “immediately” authorize a “vote-by-vote” review of an additional 8,084 tally sheets.
Both Nasralla and the ruling Liberty and Refoundation Party (Libre), whose presidential candidate Rixi Moncada is in third place with 19.29% of the vote, have called for a nationwide “vote-by-vote” recount of all tally sheets, a request the CNE rejected, citing legal impediments.
The electoral authority indicated that the Electoral Law does not allow for a nationwide “vote-by-vote” recount without cause and warned that accepting a generalized recount at the presidential level could lead to similar reviews at other levels, “denaturing the scrutiny system” established by law and “acting outside the law.”
Each political party has accredited 400 representatives for this special scrutiny, which will be carried out in two daily shifts of twelve hours each and will include 150 revision tables.
Castro says she will recognize the winner
Honduran President Xiomara Castro said on Thursday, December 18, that she will recognize the winner of the general elections as officially proclaimed by the National Electoral Council (CNE), and anticipated that the transfer of power will take place “peacefully.”
“Even under these difficult circumstances, I have respected the law and the Constitution, and in order to maintain peace in our country, considering that the traditional parties decided to abandon the thesis of a vote-by-vote recount of the 19,167 presidential tally sheets, I will respect the winner proclaimed by the National Electoral Council,” Castro emphasized during a military ceremony in Tegucigalpa.
The president said that on January 27, 2026, she will “peacefully” conclude her term as the first woman to govern Honduras, a position she noted she has carried out with “dignity and respect for the people.”
She reminded the new leadership of the Honduran Armed Forces, headed by the chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Hector Valerio, that their current mission is to support the CNE in the “custody and security” of the electoral process, with the aim that before December 30 the special revision process “seriously questioned for lack of transparency, the participation of armed organizations and gangs” are completed.She added that the 26 audio recordings warning of a possible electoral coup “have been mathematically coming true,” and reiterated “the threats to the Honduran people involving foreign intervention by the United States.”
Three days before the elections, Trump urged Hondurans to vote for Asfura and against Moncada, whom he labels a “communist.”
Calls to protect Honduras’s elections
The Alliance for Development in Democracy (ADD), made up of Panama, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Costa Rica, called for preserving the integrity of the elections held in Honduras and for those who lost to “accept the results” in order to contribute to peace and democratic governability.
In a new statement on the situation in Honduras—where it is still unknown who the president-elect is due to serious delays in the count—the ADD fully endorsed “that the institutions of the Honduran state act immediately, responsibly, and professionally, in order to preserve the integrity of the electoral process, public security, and public confidence in the results arising from the will of the people.”
In that context, they recalled that one of the fundamental democratic values “is the responsible and respectful attitude of those who, not having been favored by the popular vote, accept the electoral results and contribute to social peace, respect for institutions, and democratic governability.”
The Alliance reiterated its solidarity with the Honduran people and its firm commitment to democracy, legality, peace, and unrestricted respect for legitimate electoral results.
In addition, the bloc urged international observers from the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU) “to remain attentive” until the vote count is completed.